MADE EASY

WEEKLY
CURRENT AFFAIRS

WEEK-1
01st October - 07th October

Targeted Examinations:
CSE, ESE, PSUs, State Exams,
SSC and Banking Exams
2 Week-1 1st Oct. to 7th Oct.
1st OCTOBER 2020
Amnesty International
Context:
Amnesty International, an organization advocating for
Human Rights, recently announced that it is shutting
its offices in India, accusing Union Government to
systematically targeting its operations and freezing its
bank accounts.
Issue:
• According to Amnesty International, it is being
targeted over its adverse reports on alleged rights
violations during the Delhi riots in February 2020 and
in Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation of Article
370.
• The group also had to cut off its staff since its
accounts were frozen by the Government.
• However, Union Government has said that the
organisation was receiving foreign funds illegally and
it was never registered under the Foreign Contribution
(Regulation) Act.
Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act [FCRA],
2010
• Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA)
regulates the foreign funding for Non-Governmental
Organisations (NGOs) in India.
• It ensures that the recipients of foreign contributions
adhere to the stated purpose for which such
contribution has been obtained.
• Under the Act, organisations require to register
themselves every five years.
• The Act is implemented by the Ministry of Home
Affairs.
• Under the FCRA, an NGO needs to meet following
criteria to receive foreign funding:
w It must be in active operation for three years.
w NGO should not have parent company already
registered under the FCRA.
w It must not have any foreigner on the board.
w NGO also must have spent at least Rs. 10,00,000
over the last three years.
w It must be registered under the Companies Act
(1956-2013) and Societies Registration Act (1860).
About Amnesty International
• Amnesty International
is a non-governmental
organization, founded in
London in 1961 and mainly
focused on human rights across the world.
• The primary mission of the organization is to create a
world where every person enjoys all the human rights
that have been enshrined in the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights.
• It draws attention to human rights abuses and
campaigns for it.
• The organization has also been awarded the Nobel
Peace Prize in 1977 for its defence of human dignity
against torture, violence, and degradation.
Time Use Survey (TUS)
• The National Statistical Office (NSO), under the
Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation,
has conducted the first Time Use Survey (TUS) in
India for January to December 2019.
About the Survey
• The primary objective of survey is to measure
participation of men and women in paid and unpaid
activities.
• It is an important source of information on the time
spent in unpaid care-giving activities, volunteer
work and unpaid domestic service of the household
members.
• It also provides information on time spent on learning,
socializing, leisure activities, self-care activities, etc.,
by the household members.

BrahMos Missile
• India recently successfully test fired the BrahMos
supersonic cruise missile with an indigenous booster
and airframe section from Balasore, Odisha.
About Brahmos
• It was developed jointly by Defence Research
and Development Organization (DRDO) and NPO
Mashinostroyenia (NPOM) of Russia.
• BrahMos is a ramjet supersonic cruise missile which
can be launched from submarines, land, ships or
fighter jets.
• It has been named after the rivers Brahmaputra
(India) and Moskva (Russia).
• It has a flight range of 300 km. However, the range of
BrahMos missile has been increased to 450-600 km
in compliance with the Missile Technology Control
Regime (MTCR).
2nd OCTOBER 2020
Essential Commodities (Amendment)
Act, 2020
Context:
Parliament recently passed the Essential Commodities
(Amendment) Bill, 2020, which replaced the Essential
Commodities (Amendment) Ordinance that was
promulgated in June, 2020.
Key Highlights:
• The Bill seeks to amend the Essential Commodities
Act, 1955.
1st Oct. to 7th Oct. Week-1 3
• It empowers the Union Government in terms of
production, supply, distribution, trade, and commerce
of certain commodities under extraordinary
circumstances (include war, famine, extraordinary
price rise and natural calamity of grave nature).
• Under this, the Government will be able to designate
certain commodities including food items, fertilizers,
and petroleum products as essential commodities.
• It removes cereals, pulses, oilseeds, edible oils, onion
and potatoes from the list of essential commodities.
The amendment will deregulate the production,
storage, movement and distribution of these food
commodities.
• The imposition of any stock limit on agricultural produce
must be based on price rise. A stock limit may be
imposed only if there is a 100% increase in retail price
of horticultural produce; and a 50% increase in the retail
price of non-perishable agricultural food items.
• The Bill empowers Government to regulate the stock
of an essential commodity that a person can hold.
• However, the provisions of the bill regarding the
regulation of food items and the imposition of stock
limits will not apply to any government order relating
to the Public Distribution System or the Targeted
Public Distribution System.
Ambedkar Social Innovation and
Incubation Mission (ASIIM)
Context
The Union Social Justice Minister has launched the
Ambedkar Social Innovation and Incubation Mission
under the Venture Capital Fund for SCs, through Video
Conferencing with a vision to promote innovation and
enterprise among SC students studying in higher
educational institutions.
Key Highlights
• Within the framework of ASIIM 1,000 SC youth will be
identified over the next four years with start-up ideas
through Technology Business Incubators in various
higher education institutions.
4 Week-1 1st Oct. to 7th Oct.

• In three years, 30 lakh rupees will be funded as equity Key Details

funds to convert their start-up ideas into commercial • The primary objective of the mission is to assess the
ventures.
capabilities of asteroid mining robot.
• Successful ventures would further qualify for venture
• It also aims to verify and demonstrate multiple
funding from the Venture Capital Fund for SCs up to
functions including stimulated small celestial body
five Crore rupees.
capture, spacecraft orbital maneuver and intelligent
spacecraft identification.
Objective of ASIIM
• NEO-1, a small satellite that intends to enter a
• ASIIM under VCF-SC will promote innovation in the
500-kilometer-altitude sun-synchronous orbit, will be
SC youth.
launched as a secondary payload by a Chinese Long
• It would also help them to become job-givers from
March series rocket.
job-seekers.
• To support, encourage, hand-hold the start-up ideas
ICGS Kanaklata Barua
till they reach commercial stage by providing liberal
equity support.
• To incentivise students with an innovative mind-set to
take to entrepreneurship with confidence.
• It would also provide a boost to the Prime Minister's
'Stand Up India' initiative.

3rd OCTOBER 2020

Atal Tunnel
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently inaugurated
the Atal Tunnel which is the world longest high-
altitude tunnel at Rohtang. It reduces the distance • The Indian Coast Guard Vessel Kanaklata Barua
between Manali and Leh by 46 km. was recently commissioned at Kolkata.
• The tunnel would be proved beneficial for the defence
• It is the fifth and last in a series of Fast Patrol
troops stationed in Ladakh and for the residents of
Lahaul and Spiti Valley who remain cut off from the Vessels (FPVs) built by Garden Reach Shipbuilders
rest of the part during winters. and Engineers (GRSE) Ltd.
• It is named after Kanaklata Barua- a teenage
Key Details freedom fighter who was shot dead in Assam
• The tunnel is located above the altitude of 10,000 feet. during the Quit India Movement.
• The tunnel has the length of 9.02 km and is 8 metres
• The other four FPVs are: ICGS Priyadarshini (named
wide. It was built at a cost of Rs 3,300 crores.
after Indira Gandhi), ICGS Annie Besant, ICGS
• The tunnel is located in the Pir Panjal range of
Kamala Devi (after Kamala Devi Chattopadhyay),
Himalaya under the Rohtang pass.
and ICGS Amrit Kaur.

Asteroid Mining Robot • It can achieve speed exceeding 34 knots with

an endurance of 1,500 nautical miles or more.
• China to send the world’s first asteroid mining robot
into space in November 2020. It has been developed These are also fitted with 40/60 Gun as the main
by Origin Space, a space start-up company in China. armament.
 1st Oct. to 7th Oct. Week-1 5

• The Special Court will issue a notice for the person

4th OCTOBER 2020
to appear at a specified place and date at least six
weeks from the issue of notice.
India-China 5 Point Plan • Proceedings will be terminated if the person
appears. If not, the person would be declared as a
Context:
Fugitive Economic Offender based on the evidence
India and China agreed on "five-point action plan" to
filed by the investigating agencies.
de-escalate and minimize tensions along the Line of
• The person who is declared as a Fugitive Economic
Actual Control (LAC), where Indian and Chinese troops
Offender can challenge the proclamation in the
engaging in a four-and-a-half-month stand-off. The aim
High Court within 30 days of such declaration
of the meeting of the Foreign Ministers was to agree on
according to the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act,
the goals and principles of disengagement which have
2018.
been accomplished.

Context:
The five-point plan is as follwos:
• A special court has recently declared three people
• Following an agreement between Prime Minister
fugitive economic offenders in the Sterling Biotech
Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping that "differences
case on the request of Enforcement Directorate
need not be permitted to become conflicts."
(ED).
• Border troops should continue their dialogue, quickly
• In Sterling Biotech case, the investigating agencies
disengage, maintain proper distance and ease
have alleged routing of undisclosed funds belonging
tensions.
to unknown Income-Tax Department officials, and
• Comply with the existing India-China border protocols
another case pertains to bank loan defaults of Rs.
and avoiding escalatory actions.
8,100 crore.
• Continuing the dialogue between Special
Representatives National Security Adviser Ajit Doval
5th OCTOBER 2020
and Mr. Wang as well as the other mechanisms.
• Working towards new confidence-building measures
Nobel Prize in Medicine 2020
(CBMs).

Fugitive Economic Offender (FEO)

A person can be named a fugitive economic offender
under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018, if
there is an arrest warrant against him/her for involvement
in economic offences involving at least Rs. 100 crore or
more and has fled from India to escape legal action.

Procedure:
• The investigating agencies have to file an application
in a Special Court under the Prevention of Money-
Laundering Act, 2002 containing details of the
properties to be confiscated, and any information
about the person’s whereabouts.
• The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2020 was
awarded jointly to Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton
and Charles M. Rice for the discovery of Hepatitis-C
virus, which causes cirrhosis and liver cancer.
6 Week-1 1st Oct. to 7th Oct.
• The work of these three scientists revealed the cause
of the remaining cases of chronic hepatitis and made
possible blood tests and new medicines that have
saved millions of lives.
About Hepatitis-C
• Hepatitis C is an infectious disease caused by the
Hepatitis-C virus (HCV) that primarily affects the liver.
it is a type of viral hepatitis.
• HCV is spread primarily by blood-to-blood contact
associated with injection drug use, poorly sterilized
medical equipment, needlestick injuries in healthcare,
and transfusions.
Swachh Bharat Awards, 2020
The Union Minister of
Jal Shakti presented the
Swachh Bharat Awards,
2020 on October 2, 2020.
The awards were presented under the cleanliness and
drinking water categories.
Key Highlights
There were three categories of the awards, namely:
(i) Swachh Sundar Samudayik Shouchalaya
(ii) Gandagi Mukth Bharat
(iii) Samudayik Shouchalaya Abhiyan
Winners:
• Gujarat won the first prize at state level.
• Tirunelveli of Tamil Nadu got the first prize at district
level.
• Kharchrod block in Ujjain district, Madhya Pradesh
won the first prize at block level.
• Chinnanur village of Tamil Nadu got the first prize a
Gram Panchayat level.
• Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh came out to be best
performing states.
• Prayagraj and Bareilly were the best performing
districts.
• Telangana and Haryana got the first prize under
Gandagi Mukt Bharat Mission.
About Initiatives:
• Swachh Sundar Samudayik Shauchalaya: This
initiative involves clean beautiful toilet contest. Under
the initiative, toilets are decorated in order to pass
show their significance.
• Gandagi Mukt Bharat Abhiyan: This national level
campaign aims to clean all cities, urban and rural areas.
This initiative spreads awareness among people on
proper sanitation, hygiene, clean roads and streets.
About Swachh Bharat Mission
• Swachh Bharat Mission was launched in 2014.
• Presently, Government of India is implementing Swachh
Bharat Mission Phase II. Phase II of the mission focuses
on open defecation free plus (ODF+). Phase II is being
implemented between 2020-21 and 2024-25.
•
The ODF+ primarily focus on greywater
management, plastic waste management, faecal
sludge management and biodegradable solid waste
management.
• This phase also generate employment by involving
infrastructure programmes for compost pits, waste
stabilisation ponds, soak pits, material recovery
facilities.
RAISE Virtual Summit 2020
Context:
• The Ministry of Electronics and Information
Technology and NITI Aayog to organizing a Global
Virtual Summit on Artificial Intelligence: RAISE 2020-
‘Responsible AI for Social Empowerment 2020,’ from
October 5-9, 2020.
About RAISE 2020
• The Responsible AI for Social Empowerment (RAISE
2020) virtual summit will be a Global Artificial
Intelligence summit.
• RAISE 2020 is being Organized by Government
of India along with Ministry of Electronics and
Information Technology and NITI Aayog.
 1st Oct. to 7th Oct. Week-1 7

• RAISE 2020 is first of its-kind global meeting of minds can escape its pull. Because no light can escape, it
on Artificial Intelligence to drive India's vision for is black and invisible.
social transformation through responsible Artificial • The Event Horizon Telescope - a planet-scale array
Intelligence. of ground-based radio telescopes - obtained the first
• RAISE 2020 will be a global meeting of minds to image of a supermassive black hole and its shadow
exchange ideas and chart a course for using AI for in 2019.
social transformation, inclusion and empowerment. • It was a central black hole of Messier 87, a massive
galaxy in the Virgo cluster, which is more than 50
• It will concentrate on areas such as Healthcare,
million light-years away.
Agriculture, Education and Smart Mobility, among
other sectors.
Shaurya Missile
• The goal of the Summit is to help create a data-rich
• India recently
environment, which is a stepping stone to eventually
successfully
transform lives globally.
test-fired a new
version of nu-
6th OCTOBER 2020
clear-capable
Shaurya missile
Nobel Prize in Physics 2020
from the coast
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2020 was divided, one half
of Odisha.
awarded to Roger Penrose "for the discovery that black
• The new version
hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory
of the missile
of relativity", the other half jointly to Reinhard Genzel
would be
and Andrea Ghez "for the discovery of a supermassive
inducted in the
compact object at the centre of our galaxy."
strategic forces in order to complement the existing
missiles in the same class.
• The missile would be lighter and easier to operate in
comparison with the existing missile.

About Shaurya Missile

• It is a canister launched hypersonic surface-to-surface
tactical missile. The missile has been developed
by the Defence Research and Development
Organisation (DRDO).
• Range of the missile is 700 to 1,900 km and it can
carry a conventional or nuclear warhead payload of
About Black Hole
200kg to 1 ton.
• A black hole is an object in space that is so dense
and has such strong gravity that no matter or light
8 Week-1 1st Oct. to 7th Oct.

• A DNA strand, when broken, has a natural tendency to

7th OCTOBER 2020
Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020 was awarded jointly
to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna "for
the development of a method for genome editing."
repair itself. Scientists intervene during this auto-repair
process, supplying the desired sequence of genetic
codes that binds itself with the broken DNA strand.
• CRISPR-Cas9 is a simple, effective, and incredibly
precise technology with potential to revolutionise
human existence in future.

Supersonic Missile Assisted Release of

Torpedo (SMART)
• The Defence Re-
search and Devel-
opment Organisa-
tion (DRDO) has
successfully flight-
About CRISPR-Cas9 tested the Super-
sonic Missile As-
sisted Release of
Torpedo (SMART)
system from the
Wheeler Island,
Odisha.
• SMART is a lightweight anti-submarine torpedo
system which is the fastest Anti-Submarine Warfare
(ASW) missile in the world. The Missile has a range of
• Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic 650 km.
Repeats (CRISPR) is a gene editing technology, • ASW missile uses a jet or rocket engine in order to
which replicates natural defence mechanism deliver an explosive warhead aiming directly at a
in bacteria to fight virus attacks, using a special submarine, a depth charge and a torpedo which is
protein called Cas9. carried from a launch ship.
• CRISPR-Cas9 technology behaves like a cut-and-
paste mechanism on DNA strands that contain PARAM Siddhi-AI
genetic information. The specific location of the The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing
genetic codes that need to be changed, or edited,
(C-DAC) to commission the India’s largest High-
is identified on the DNA strand, and then, using the
Performance Computing and Artificial Intelligence
Cas9 protein, which acts like a pair of scissors, that
(HPC-AI) supercomputer, ‘PARAM Siddhi – AI’.
location is cut off from the strand.

Key Details
• The supercomputer will have 210 AI Petaflops speed.
• It will be based on the NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD.
• The supporting infrastructure for the supercomputer
will be supported by NITI Aayog, Ministry of
Electronics and IT, Department of Science and
Technology and the Union Government.
• The computer will use NVIDIA Next Generation
technology, C-DAC software stack and Cloud
platform.
GST Council Meeting
Context:
The 42nd GST Council recently met under the
Chairmanship of Union Finance & Corporate Affairs
Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
Key Highlights
The GST Council made the following recommendations:
• Compensation of ₹ 20,000 crore have been released
towards States to compensate the loss of revenue
during 2020-21.
• Small Tax payers (Having annual turnover of less
than Rs 5 crores) have been given flexibility over
filing returns. They need not file monthly returns from
January 1, 2021.
• Taxpayers with turnover more than Rs 5 crores
will now have to provide a Harmonized System
Nomenclature (HSN) Code from April 2021.
• To get the refunds Aadhaar authentication has been
made mandatory.
• GST Compensation cess levy have been extended
beyond the transition period of five years i.e. beyond
June, 2022.
Goods and Services Tax (GST)
• Goods and Services Tax (GST) is a destination-based
indirect taxation system. It is based on the lines of
“One Nation One Tax”.
1st Oct. to 7th Oct. Week-1 9
• It is a single tax on supply of Goods and Services
in its entire product cycle or life cycle i.e. from
manufacturer to the consumer.
• It was established by the 101st Constitutional
Amendment Act, 2016.
• It has been applied throughout India since July 1,
2017.
Components of GST
There are three components of GST, namely:
i. Central GST (CGST): It is the tax collected by the
Central Government on an intra-state sale (e.g., a
transaction happening within a State)
ii. State GST (SGST): It is the tax collected by the state
government on an intra-state sale (e.g., a transaction
happening within that State boundary)
iii. Integrated GST (IGST): It is a tax collected by the
Central Government for an inter-state sale (e.g.,
between two states)
GST Council
• The Goods and Services Tax (GST) is governed by
the GST Council.
• Article 279 (1) of the amended Constitution of India
states that the GST Council has to be constituted by
the President within 60 days of the commencement of
the Article 279A.
• The Council makes recommendations to the Union
and the States on the important issues related to
GST.
Composition:
GST Council consists of the following members:
(i) The Union Finance Minister (Chairperson)
(ii) Union Minister of State for Finance (Member)
(iii) The Minister in charge of finance or taxation or any
other Minister nominated by each State government
(Members)
10 Week-1 1st Oct. to 7th Oct.

India-Myanmar to operate Sittwe Port

Context:
India and Myanmar have agreed
to operationalise the Sittwe port in
the Rakhine state by first quarter
of 2021.

Key Highlights
The deal was finalized after a
recent visit of Chief of Army Staff
(COAS) General M M Naravane
and Foreign Secretary Harsh
Vardhan Shringla to Myanmar.

Agreements
• Both sides agreed to strengthen
their connectivity projects, capacity building, power and energy partnership.
• They agreed to facilitate people to people and cultural exchanges.
• Both sides also agreed to deepen cooperation to overcome the challenges of COVID-19 pandemic.
• They discussed the progress of Trilateral Highway and the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project.

Cultural Deals
• Both sides discussed the translation of Indian epics in Burmese language to enhance the cultural ties.
• They also discussed about the plan to install a bust of Lokmanya Tilak in Mandalay so as to commemorate his
100th death anniversary. This is being done in the light that- Lokmanya tilak wrote Gita Rahasya, which is a
commentary on the Bhagavad-Gita, in Mandalay jail of Myanmar.